Godzilla Will Fix This

 https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/01/radioactive_hybrid_terror_pigs_fukushima/

7 Down, 18 To Go

Today was a little more difficult than normal as, while trying to get her dressed, Sandi slid off the end of the bed and fell onto the floor. It took awhile, but Scott and I finally managed to get her up off the floor. Got her dressed and out the door to the car so she could have her seventh radiation treatment this morning. Nothing has changed for better or worse as she is still in severe pain in her back and off and on pain in her stomach. The chills and shakes continue as do the severe back spasms. We told her radiation folks about what had happened this morning, and near as we can all tell there are no new issues from this fall.

After radiation tomorrow,  we go to infusion so they can do fluids for a couple of hours.  Hopefully, we will be back home by early afternoon.

Finally Home ....and Things Are Not Good.

Sandi had her fifth radiation treatment this morning and as of right now she is still scheduled for 20 more. She remains in severe pain from the tumor itself as well as the back spasms it is causing. She is also having some severe stomach cramps that could be those tumors in and around her intestinal tract reacting to the radiation or it could be another issue including some sort of sympathy spasms caused by the large spinal tumor.

That is not the worst of it as the visit with her doctor and the blood work indicates there are severe and worsening issues. There are multiple and worsening issues including one with her white blood cell count as it is soaring. More blood was taken from her for a second round of testing that will included the dreaded bacterial blood tests. The hope is she does not have yet another bacterial blood infection.

Several medications have been stopped as her blood pressure is far too low and that is another puzzler. After putting her into an actual hospital bed in one of the bedrooms instead of out in an infusion chair, they put a massive amount of fluid into her and slowly got her blood pressure back up. I am not sure how much it was, but I do know it was easily in excess of a liter. I suspect it was two.

The current plan is for her to have radiation this week as scheduled and into next week and have her come to the main office for fluids on Friday as well as a doctor visit and more fluid next Tuesday. Before we left this afternoon, two different staff members again went over the drill with me about what to look for, when to call the doctor, and when to call  911. One hopes that I never have to make another 911 call.

4 Down, 21 To Go

4 Down, 21 To Go as of today. No change here one way or the other. We met with the radiation doctor after the treatment and he remains very optimistic about how things are going. Sandi is  frustrated at how things don't seem to be getting better, but he says it will take a bit longer. How long? He never really answered that question.

After she has another radiation treatment tomorrow, we see her main cancer folks for blood work and an office visit.

3 Down, 22 To Go

No changes better or worse.

2 Down, 23 To Go

Sandi had her second radiation treatment this morning. The docs think that her severe chills last night could have been caused by the radiation, but more likely caused by the cancer reacting to the first treatment. In addition to the spinal tumor, she has numerous tumors on her stomach, intestinal tract, liver, kidneys, etc., so they all get hit by spill over from the focused beam. While they are concerned about what happened, they don’t think it means she has to already stop treatment. That was a relief because things were severe last night. At least they were not severe in the way we thought they were.

1 Down, 24 To Go

Sandi had her first radiation treatment this afternoon. Unfortunately, it appears the side effects have already started. Last time she was  the second week before negative things started happening. What this means long term for getting through the treatment deal I don't know.

Radiation Treatment Plan

Long afternoon and we are finally home. We met with the doctor and a CT scan was done to map the area they will target with their focused radiation beam. Sandi starts radiation next Wednesday afternoon. The plan, subject to change, is for 25 sessions. That means five days a week each week or until mid November.

The doctor is optimistic that radiation will work on this tumor as it has before. She faces significant complications due to the previous radiation, all the chemos she has had, and her significantly weakened medical state now.

In the meantime, she is to eat when she can, rest, and see her main cancer doctor for blood work and an office visit next Tuesday morning.

Pet Scan Results

We have gotten very bad news today regarding Sandi's PET Scan done Saturday. Because of what we were told and her overall medical condition now, we had a very difficult conversation with the doctor about ending all treatment. Sandi wants to keep going as long as she physically can and does not want to stop treatment.She expressed that wish very clearly so this is where we are at and what we plan to do tomorrow.

While the current chemo has slowed the growth of a few of her tumors, others tumors that were visible before on the scan back in the spring have increased significantly. The spinal tumor that was radiated in the summer of 2015 and had virtually gone away is now back. It is msaller than before, but has pulled itself back together and is growing. Not only that, but she has significant new tumors at various lymph node points through her body, along her right rib cage, a few other spots,  and an all new massive spinal tumor.

This new one covers her L3 and L4 vertebrae and then some and is attempting to compress her spinal cord and column in that area as well as shut down her colon, bladder, and kidneys. It is sufficiently big enough at this time that she could be paralyzed at any time. This explains why she is in such tremendous pain in her back, can hardly walk,  and having other issues.

The PET Scan found some other stuff that is also very bad, but the worst is the cancer news. As a result, we meet with the radiation doctor tomorrow and will make a plan for treatment. Last time it was 25 doses of radiation on a daily basis for five days each week. We expect that at the minimum she is looking at that again. Hopefully, we are wrong, but we won't know until the early afternoon appointment tomorrow.

They also have to determine what to do chemo wise. At this point she is far too weak to do chemo so the hope is the radiation will do something as a stop gap while they try to figure out what they can do chemo wise. Their chemo options are very limited and they need time to do some research and see if they can try a couple of things they have thought of at this point.

We expected bad news today, but not anywhere near the level we got it. Things are very grim, but she is not quitting and neither is her medical team or anyone involved in her care. The fight is not over yet. 

Radiation Done!

Sandi had her 25th and final radiation treatment this morning. She is now done!

Plans were changed in the last couple of days. Now, she will be seen by the radiation doctor for a follow up on September 1st. It also appears they intend to do their quick version of a CT Scan to measure the size of the tumor at that time.

In the meantime, she sees the regular cancer doctor for a visit and the usual blood work on August 11th.

All this means the car and I get a bit of a break. ;)

And big time thank you to the unnamed benefactor who donated some bucks via Paypal yesterday evening. Being completely wiped out money wise, that donation saved us and allowed me to gas up the car on the way home which was very much needed. I don't beg as much as I used to as I hate myself for saying anything, but the need is still very much there.

Our Medical Update

It was a long morning at the hospital. We got behind at the radiation deal and that cascaded everything backwards. But, we are finally home.

Radiation  went okay once they got things working and going. Sandi has four more treatments and that will be it.

Sandi's blood work seemed to be okay. They are double checking a couple of things as they seem a little too good to be true. But, if the results are confirmed things look amazingly good blood wise.

Doctor was pleased about how she is doing.  The current plan is for her to come back in three weeks and do the usual visit. At that point and after consulting with the radiation doctor they will have an idea as to how we go forward. Indications right now are that an MRI will be done in very late August or early September so they can measure the tumor in her spinal area and see if it has shrunk like it was supposed to do. After that is done what we do next will be determined.

So, all we know for sure is once the radiation is done we should have a couple of weeks break from going down to the hospital and doing anything. That will be nice.

18 Down, 7 To Go

Sandi completed her 18th radiation treatment this morning. She now has 7 more to go. We also met with the radiation doctor this morning, as we do each Monday, and he remains very pleased with how she is doing.

Later this week on Thursday, after she has radiation, we will go upstairs and meet with her regular cancer doctor and do blood work. That meeting may or may not include planning for the next scan to re-image her cancers. Assuming nothing horrendous turns up in the blood work we should be on the way home in our un-airconditioned car before the day time temps hit the predicted century mark.

Things seem to be going as well as possible. Hopefully, they truly are.So many times when we have thought she was doing well, she wasn't and things blew up in our faces. So, I remain worried though they say things are fine. More importantly, she thinks things are fine. It is a feeling she has. Considering she knew the cancers were back before they found them and told her, as well as a few other things in recent years cancer wise, I believe she knows before they do.

13 Done, 12 To Go

Sandi completed her thirteenth treatment this morning. She has twelve to go. This means she is now beyond the halfway point. So far, any sideffects that are radiation caused can't be discerned as different than what happens to her on a daily and weekly basis.

Met with the doctor as well today. He is very pleased at how she is doing and that there have not been any complications. At this point he does not see anything to be concerned about.

The fight goes on....

Medical Update

Just got home as her regular appointment with the cancer doc and blood work was moved back to today and followed her radiation session. So far, Sandi seems to be tolerating everything radiation wise okay though it is playing havoc with her diabetes control. Additional numbers will be run on her blood to make sure other things are stable.

Radiation Update

As of this morning Sandi has completed 4 of the planned 25 treatments. So far so good with no obvious side effects. Doctor and staff seem pleased with how she is doing to this point.

Radiation Has Started

After a morning when the machine did not work and we had to be rescheduled to the afternoon, Sandi has finally had her first radiation treatment. She reports the bed of the machine is not padded and therefore caused her quite a lot of pain. Another issues is that there are panels that rotate in very close to the patient making her claustrophobic. Considering that I am the one with big time claustrophobia issues, the fact it bothered her that way really says something. All in all she absolutely hated the session and is not a happy camper.

While she was in the chamber I met with the financial counselor. For now, all they want was signatures on various releases so they can bill and work on payment issues.

Radiation Start Rescheduled

Radiation start rescheduled for Wednesday morning. We also have to meet with the financial counselor for that Wednesday morning BEFORE we can do anything.

Radiation News

As feared, it was a very long afternoon at the hospital. Things were made worse because they were running about an hour behind. We met with the doc who did his best to reassure us this will work. He made it very clear that he agreed with everyone else that this is Sandi's only option. He is seriously amazed she is not already having serious pain and other issues from the tumor.  You know things are serious when they make room in the schedule so that Sandi could have her CT Scan this afternoon so they could mark her body for the targeting stuff.


Starting Monday and for the rest of that week and then for four more weeks they will hit her with radiation for about 15 minutes each morning. The list of possible side effects are huge and appear to be far more extensive than what was worried about with chemo. While the tumor is in about the worst possible spot they think they can hit it and avoid damage to major organs. They are going with a five week cycle in the hopes they can use a slightly lower dose and can cut the risk of causing huge issues for her. So, basically the rest of June and all of July will be spent each morning down at the hospital.


While they did their level best to reassure us, we remain very worried. All we can do now is hope for the best. It is going to be a long several days until they actually start doing treatment.

Medical Update

Sandi's blood work was very bad regarding her kidney function and some other issues. Despite that fact, they went ahead and did the IVIG infusion because to not do it in the shape she is in right now would be more dangerous.

Going forward the chemo is being stopped in favor of radiation. They took another look at the images and compared them to her earlier records. The tumor in her lower back next to her spinal cord is of a size that it is pressing on a variety of vital functions and could do irreversible permanent damage to motor skills and bodily functions if the growth is not immediately stopped. They don't feel they have time to wait for the chemo to do something.

So, we await an appointment with the radiation doctor and the treatment schedule. This is another case where a holiday schedule is not at all helpful.

More on Tom Piccirilli

Tom made it through the brain surgery okay, but based on what his wife Michelle wrote on Facebook yesterday, the road ahead is going to be much harder than they anticipated.  Beyond what I already mentioned on here, Brian Keene has additional ways you can help Tom and his family at http://www.briankeene.com/?p=12584

For those on Facebook, Tom's page is at http://www.facebook.com/tompiccirilli?ref=ts&fref=ts

Please help if you can.


Kevin